Author Spotlight

Death in the City: Suicide and the Social Imaginary in Modern Mexico

Kathryn Sloan

At the turn of the twentieth century, many observers considered suicide to be a worldwide
social problem that had reached epidemic proportions. In Mexico City, violent deaths
in public spaces were commonplace in a city undergoing rapid modernization. Crime
rates mounted, corpses piled up in the morgue, and the media reported on sensational
cases of murder and suicide. More troublesome still, a compelling death wish appeared
to grip women and youth. Drawing on a range of sources from judicial records to the
popular press, Death in the City investigates the cultural meanings of self-destruction in modern Mexico. Sloan examines
responses to suicide and death and disproves the long-held belief that Mexicans possess
a cavalier attitude toward suffering.

Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic

Charles Muntz

In Diodorus Siculus and the World of the Late Roman Republic, Charles E. Muntz offers a fresh look at one of the most neglected historians of
the ancient world, and recovers Diodorus’s originality and importance as a witness
to a profoundly tumultuous period in antiquity. Muntz analyzes the first three books
of Diodorus’s Bibliotheke, some of the most varied and eclectic material in his work,
in which Diodorus reveals through the history, myths, and customs of the “barbarians”
the secrets of successful states and rulers, and contributes to the debates surrounding
the transition from Republic to Empire. Muntz establishes just how linked the “barbarians”
of the Bibliotheke are to the actors of the crumbling Republic, and demonstrates that
through the medium of the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Indians, and others Diodorus
engages with the major issues and intellectual disputes of his time, including the
origins of civilization, the propriety of ruler-cult, the benefits of monarchy, and
the relationship between myth and history. Diodorus has many similarities with other
authors writing on these topics, including Cicero, Lucretius, Varro, Sallust, and
Livy but, as Muntz argues, engaging with such controversial issues, even indirectly,
could be especially dangerous for a Greek provincial such as Diodorus. Indeed, for
these reasons he may never have completed or fully published the Bibliotheke in his
lifetime. Through his careful and precise investigations, Muntz demonstrates Diodorus’s
historical context at its full size and scope.

Soldados Razos at War: Chicano Politics, Identity, and Masculinity in the U.S. Military
From World War II to Vietnam

Steven Rosales

What were the catalysts that motivated Mexican American youth to enlist or readily
accept their draft notice in World War II, Korea, or Vietnam? In Soldados Razos at
War, historian and veteran Steven Rosales chronicles the experiences of Chicano servicemen
who fought for the United States, explaining why these men served, how they served,
and the impact of their service on their identity and political consciousness.

As a social space imbued with its own martial and masculine ethos, the U.S. military
offers an ideal way to study the aspirations and behaviors of these young men that
carried over into their civilian lives. A tradition of martial citizenship forms the
core of the book. Using rich oral histories and archival research, Rosales investigates
the military’s transformative potential with a particular focus onsocioeconomic mobility, masculinity, and postwar political activism across three generations.

The national collective effort characteristic of World War II and Korea differed sharply
from the highly divisive nature of American involvement in Vietnam. Thus, for Mexican
Americans, military service produced a wide range of ideological reactions, with the
ideals of each often in opposition to the others. Yet a critical thread connecting
these diverse outcomes was a redefined sense of self and a willingness to engage in
individual and collective action to securefirst-class citizenship.

Russian History through the Senses: from 1700 to the Present

Tricia Starks

Bringing together an impressive cast of well-respected scholars in the field of modern
Russian studies, Russian History through the Senses investigates life in Russia from 1700 to the present day via the senses. It examines
past experiences of taste, touch, smell, sight and sound to capture a vivid impression
of what it was to have lived in the Russian world, so uniquely placed as it is between
East and West, during the last three hundred years.

The book discusses the significance of sensory history in relation to modern Russia
and covers a range of exciting case studies, rich with primary source material, that
provide a stimulating way of understanding modern Russia at a visceral level.

Russian History through the Senses is a novel text that is of great value to scholars and students interested in modern
Russian studies.

Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Churchill sought to lead Europe into an
integrated union, but just over seventy years later, Britain is poised to vote on
leaving the EU. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon here recounts the fascinating history of
Britain's uneasy relationship with the European continent since the end of the war.
He shows how British views of the United Kingdom's place within Europe cannot be understood
outside of the context of decolonization, the Cold War, and the Anglo-American relationship.
At the end of the Second World War, Britons viewed themselves both as the leaders
of a great empire and as the natural centre of Europe. With the decline of the British
Empire and the formation of the European Economic Community, however, Britons developed
a Euroscepticism that was inseparable from a post-imperial nostalgia. Britain had
evolved from an island of imperial Europeans to one of post-imperial Eurosceptics.

Prisoners of Hope: Lyndon Johnson, the Great Society, and the Limits of Liberalism

Randall B. Woods

President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was breathtaking in its scope and dramatic
in its impact. Over the course of his time in office, Johnson passed over one thousand
pieces of legislation designed to address an extraordinary array of social issues.
Poverty and racial injustice were foremost among them, but the Great Society included
legislation on issues ranging from health care to immigration to education and environmental
protection. But while the Great Society was undeniably ambitious, it was by no means
perfect. In Prisoners of Hope, prize-winning historian Randall B. Woods presents the first comprehensive history
of the Great Society, exploring both the breathtaking possibilities of visionary politics,
as well as its limits.

James J. Gigantino II

Slavery and Secession in Arkansas: A Documentary History, a new book that examines private and published documents in Arkansas before the start
of the Civil War reveals that defending slavery was at the forefront of secession
arguments in the state. It draws from hundreds of sources, including pamphlets, broadsides,
legislative debates, public addresses, newspapers and private correspondence.

Diamonds in the Rough: Corporate Paternalism and African Professionalism on the Mines
of Colonial Angola, 1917-1975

Todd Cleveland

Diamonds in the Rough explores the lives of African laborers on Angola’s diamond mines from the commencement
of operations in 1917 to the colony’s independence from Portugal in 1975. The mines
were owned and operated by the Diamond Company of Angola, or Diamang, which enjoyed
exclusive mining and labor concessions granted by the colonial government. Through
these monopolies, the company became the most profitable enterprise in Portugal’s
African empire. After a tumultuous initial period, the company’s mines and mining
encampments experienced a remarkable degree of stability, in striking contrast to
the labor unrest and ethnic conflicts that flared in other regions. Even during the
Angolan war for independence (1961–75), Diamang’s zone of influence remained comparatively
untroubled.

The American Revolution in New Jersey: Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front

James J. Gigantino II

Battles were fought in many colonies during the American Revolution, but New Jersey
was home to more sustained and intense fighting over a longer period of time. The
nine essays in The American Revolution in New Jersey, depict the many challenges New Jersey residents faced at the intersection of the
front lines and the home front.

The essays in this collection identify and explore the interconnections between the
events on the battlefield and the daily lives of ordinary colonists during the Revolution.
Using a wide historical lens, the contributors to The American Revolution in New Jersey capture the decades before and after the conflict as they interpret the causes of
the war and the consequences of New Jersey’s reaction to the Revolution.